Pentagon Withdraws Promotion for Admiral Who Allowed Drag Shows on USS Ronald Reagan

By Joshua Arnold | The Washington Stand

The U.S. Department of Defense has withdrawn its nomination to promote Rear Admiral Michael P. Donnelly after learning that Donnelly previously allowed drag performances to take place on board his command, The Daily Wire reported Thursday.

The decision marks a continuation of the Trump administration’s efforts to root out destructive transgender ideology from America’s armed forces.

From April 2016 to September 2018, Donnelly served as the skipper of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Ronald Reagan. During that time, he officially sanctioned “Morale, Welfare, and Recreation” events featuring Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley in drag, with the stage name “Harpy Daniels.”

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But, in the midst of the furor of the Russia collusion hoax, the first Trump administration never got around to hauling the U.S. military into drydock to overhaul its ideological keel and remove the barnacles of transgender ideology. In fact, Donnelly’s deviant diversion went nearly unnoticed — certainly by the Trump administration officials who recommended him for promotion.

On June 18, 2025, President Donald Trump nominated Rear Admiral Michael P. “Buzz” Donnelly for a promotion to vice admiral, and he also recommended his appointment to be commander of U.S. Seventh Fleet. (Admiral Michael P. Donnelly is to be distinguished from both Ohio Supreme Court Justice Michael P. Donnelly and former Home School Legal Defense Association senior counsel Michael P. Donnelly — rather a surprising name to occur so frequently, but reality is often stranger than fiction.)

Command of the Seventh Fleet is a plum assignment that would place Donnelly in charge of up to 70 warships, 150 aircraft, and more than 27,000 sailors. The Seventh Fleet is the largest American fleet overseas, with a zone of responsibility that stretches from Japan to India to Antarctica. The Seventh Fleet would occupy a central location for any American conflict with China or other far Eastern adversaries.

Following Donnelly’s nomination, The Daily Wire made inquiries with the Trump administration regarding his authorization for drag shows on a U.S. Navy ship. Those drag shows came to light in 2023, when Donnelly’s promotion to rear admiral was caught up in Senator Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) hold of senior military promotions, due to the unlawful abortion travel reimbursement policy adopted by the Biden administration’s Department of Defense.

After The Daily Wire brought Donnelly’s actions to the DOD’s attention, the Defense Department said that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth would withdraw his nomination and look for a new Seventh Fleet commander.

On one level, it’s easy to feel sympathy for Donnelly, whose chance at promotion has been caught up in political controversy twice in three years. That is an unenviable lot.

Yet Donnelly had already politicized his own job by authorizing a drag performer on his naval vessel in the first place, and responsibility for the performance rests squarely on his shoulders.

“Every military officer takes command of units large and small with the understanding they are responsible for everything that does and does not happen under their command,” explained William Thibeau, director of The American Military Project at The Claremont Institute.

“It’s the basic truth of military leadership, whether you command an infantry company or an aircraft carrier.”

“The U.S.S. Ronald Reagan drag shows of 2017 and 2018 were not random acts of entertainment for sailors,” Thibeau continued, “but were sanctioned Navy programs under the Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) department of the ship. As commander of the ship, Captain Donnelly would have been ultimately responsible for this program.”

Donnelly’s motives are between himself and God alone, but the most charitable interpretation is that Donnelly sensed the woke impulses rippling through the military under President Obama and shrewdly positioned himself to take advantage of them.

The hazard inherent in this scheme is that those who successfully crested the woke wave would likely tumble into the trough of anti-woke backlash — and so it has proven in Donnelly’s case.

There is deep irony in Donnelly’s sanctioning such an immoral performance as a way to boost sailor morale and welfare. From creation, God has designed every human being in his image as male or female, and everyone finds greatest fulfillment when they live according to this blueprint. The whole purpose of “drag” as entertainment — a male dressing and acting like an offensive stereotype of a woman, or vice versa — is to mock and transgress this creation blueprint.

A commander cannot boost the morale of servicemembers by degrading their morals.

In so doing, he only undermines his own authority, order, and discipline, and hews away at the bedrock stability his soldiers (or sailors) will need to endure the hazardous duties to which they are called. Admiral Donnelly fails to understand this — or did, seven years ago.

Consequently, the Pentagon under President Trump has made the prudent decision not to elevate him to command of the entire Seventh Fleet.

First published on The Washington Stand